Iran swears in Raisi as new president
Ebrahim Raisi was sworn into office as Iran’s new president on Thursday, consolidating the power of conservatives who now control all branches of the Islamic Republic’s government and are set to pursue a harder line in foreign and domestic policies.
Mr. Raisi, 60, a protege of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, won a low-turnout election in June that had been orchestrated to prevent any credible opponent from running. He is seen as Ayatollah Khamenei’s choice to succeed him as supreme leader in a system where a small group of Shiite clerics, not elected officials, hold ultimate power.
The inauguration ceremony, at the Parliament in Tehran, took place amid very heavy security and ample pomp, with hundreds of foreign dignitaries arriving in luxury cars, a military band playing the national anthem and the capital city shut down.
But no amount of ceremony could mask the mounting challenges Mr. Raisi faces,including an escalating series of maritime clashes with Israel and other regional tensions, stalled talks over the 2015 nuclear accord, an economy battered by sanctions, a surge in the coronavirus pandemic and a restless population demanding change.
Iran’s backing of militant groups in the Middle East and its support of the Syrian government have been a point of contention with neighbors and Western powers. Yet Mr. Raisi struck a defiant tone, praising Iran’s regional policies as a “stabilizing force” in the region and condemning foreign intervention in Iranian affairs.
As Mr. Raisi, a former chief of the Iranian judiciary, sets out to engage with the world, accusations of human rights violations will shadow him.
International rights groups say that he was part of a four-person committee that ordered the execution of 5,000 political dissidents in 1988. Critics of Iran’s government, including opposition figures and human rights activists, have called for the international community to shun him.
Mr. Raisi has not announced the names of Cabinet ministers, but a list leaked to local media indicates that key posts like the foreign, defense, intelligence and interior ministries will be offered to men with deep ties to the intelligence and security apparatus and affiliations with the Revolutionary Guard.